Self Portrait- The Frame

'‘The Frame'’, one of Frida's many self-portraits, is the first painting from a 20th century Mexican artist ever bought by The Louvre museum.

On 22 May 1939, the Jeu de Paume Museum was advised of the purchase by the state of "Portrait of the artist M me Frida de Rivera. " French collections then became the first public collections in the world to acquire a work of Frida Kahlo; Centre Pompidou, who now has the charge is still the only museum in Europe to have a work of the artist.

The story of The Frame (cat. rais. 59) begins with the journey of André Breton in Mexico, from 18 April to 1 st August 1938. His encounters with Leon Trotsky and Diego Rivera put him in contact with Frida Kahlo which he discovered the paintings, while preparing the first solo exhibition of the artist in New York at the Julien Levy Gallery, from 1 st to 15 November 1938.

The Frame is an exceptional work: the "painting itself," drawn from the physical, inspired by the passion and love dictated by political commitment, always crossbred folklorisantes of references is here not limited to these, but really placed at their disposal. This had been clearly seen André Breton concluded as his text: "The art of Frida Kahlo de Rivera is a ribbon around a bomb" ("Frida Kahlo de Rivera," 1938, resumed in Surrealism and painting , Paris, Gallimard, 1965, p. 141-144).

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All rights reserved. Exhibited on USEUM with the permission of the rights owner.